“I‘m sure that we can do better,” Verstappen added, before referencing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s one-two performance in FP2. “I’m not saying that we’ll be at McLaren level, because they seem very quick so far this weekend, but at least if we can fight in that top six, that will be a good recovery, because so far it’s been quite tricky.”
There are eyeballs aplenty on Sergio Perez this weekend, the Mexican having taken just 13 points in the last nine Grand Prix weekends, leading to question marks surrounding his future with the Red Bull team.
PALMER: Keep Perez, promote from RB, or sign someone else – who should Red Bull run alongside Verstappen next year?
Speaking to the media after FP2, Perez shared Verstappen’s frustrations with the RB20 package – while hinting that the car’s long-run pace might be more promising for Sunday evening’s season finale.
“It was tricky,” he said. “Over one lap it’s quite tricky. I think we’ve got some work to do. I think the long run is a lot more promising, but over one lap, we need to try and connect the car. We’ve been trying a lot of stuff out there, but it’s just not coming together at the moment.
